High data rate signal transmission is a concern in many systems. Current server systems, for example, often use a set of user-selected components that need to communicate with each other at high data rates. In a blade server system, for example, the blades, e.g., server blades and storage blades, are mounted in a common enclosure and share system components such as cooling fans, power supplies, and enclosure management. For the blades to work together and provide the desired data storage, processing, and communications, the server system needs to provide high data rate communication channels for communications among the blades.
Data channels using electrical signaling generally require high frequency electrical signals to provide high data transmission rates, and the high frequency oscillations can present impedance and noise problems for electrical signals transmitted over conductors such as copper wires. Data channels using optical signaling can avoid many of these problems, but guided optical signaling may require complex waveguides and couplers and/or dealing with loose optical cables or ribbons and their connections. The optical cables or ribbons may introduce space and reliability issues. Free-space optical signaling avoids impedance and noise problems associated with electrical signals, and the need for waveguides or optical cables and complex couplers that connect cables or waveguides together. However, use of a free-space optical data channel in a system such as a server generally requires the ability to precisely align an optical transmitter and an optical receiver and the ability to maintain the alignment in an environment that may experience mechanical vibrations and thermal variations. Accordingly, systems and methods for economically and efficiently establishing and maintaining free-space optical channels are desired.